In 3 Years, What has Changed Since The Protests & Riots of 2020
On the police brutality protests of 2020, Walter Wallace’s death, and Philadelphia’s “Pathways to Reform” 1-year progress report, as well as the city’s more than 500+ murders in 2021.
May 30, 2020
It was a sunny Saturday in the city. Only a few short days had passed since the death of George Floyd. At the time, the only content released on the devastating situation was the video of the now-convicted officer kneeling on his neck. We were but a few months removed from the deaths of Ahmaud Arbury and Breonna Jones and a tumultuous weekend of protests and riots across the country was already in full swing. Riots had broken out in Minneapolis (Floyd’s home), LA, New York. But at 2:45pm, Philadelphia’s protest was peaceful.
The protest began at City Hall. Those in attendance then marched down the parkway to the Art Museum. Chants of ‘NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE’ and ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ felt passionate but fruitless considering the magnitude of what was happening across the country. Side conversations consisted of what actions needed to be taken, what was to come later, of defunding and/or abolishing the police, of revolution, and fraud protesters.
“HALF OF YOU ARE ONLY HERE FOR THE WALK! GO HOME YOU FUCKING FRAUDS!” a woman in her 20’s shouted passionately. Not so much at anyone in particular but injecting it into the air, surely sobering anyone questioning their commitment.
Thousands of people gathered amidst a global pandemic. Masks were worn strictly and securely. I don’t believe I saw a single person without one, but it was still a large gathering of people, many of whom were often too close to one another.
Away from the action runners, walkers, and bikers would dash by the movement and observe in passing. The parks surrounding the Art Museum were filled with people, many of which hadn’t been out freely in weeks. Families and friends lounged on picnic blankets in the grass, kicked soccer balls, ate packed lunches, and threw frisbees—distance being the main COVID deterrent. Normally, more basketballs would bounce, but the rims on public courts had been removed.
On social media, the war waged on. Those in support of Black Lives Matter called for justice and an end to systematic racism. Black people asked white people to speak up and take action. They also asked for white people to shut the fuck up and listen for once, rather than speaking out their privileged asses.
As a fellow white speaking out of my privileged ass, it was definitely a strange position to be in.
Many of us evolved, almost overnight, into lawyers, activists, police officers, and social scientists overnight. Social media does But figuring out how to navigate the situation was so darn tricky at times! Still, I suppose we made it through unscathed, somehow, someway. I suppose it could’ve been worse.
Like, for example, getting the cops called on you for looking “sketchy” even though you’re a perfectly good citizen who’s bothering nobody, but wearing a ski mask in Colorado because you’re anemic. Despite cooperating with responding officers, you end up getting strangled until you vomit on their shoes… you even apologize for doing so. But it doesn’t matter. They continue to strangle you to the point you vomit again, and again. This leads to your losing consciousness, only to be sedated by paramedics, which leads you to cardiac arrest, and ultimately your death three days later. All while responding officers mock the stranglehold in photos. They are only questioned until the entire country gets wind. Like in Elijah McClain’s ridiculous and fateful case.
Many of those in opposition to BLM are quiet during the peaceful protests and loud during the looting and riots. They lambast those stealing from broken-in stores and damaging businesses, calling them thugs and criminals. The sentiment, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” began to make its internet rounds. The suggestion that the riots and protests were hurting the cause were also echoed.
Sun Down
Still, Philadelphia was peaceful… until it wasn’t.
Until the great ball of fire in the sky descended upon Center City’s streets.
The fires actually started before sundown. A cop car was lit aflame in broad daylight in center city.
Philadelphia’s riots felt inevitable.
The city has had its run of corruption throughout the police force and innumerable flawed, if not downright baseless, incarcerations in recent years. And if they weren’t going to happen on behalf of George Floyd, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Philando Castle, or Trayvon Martin, they were destined to occur in late October after Walter Wallace was shot and killed while wielding a knife in West Philly.
It’s sad and safe to say that the nationwide, and globally, the protests and riots that occurred after Floyd’s death would have likely happened eventually. Obviously one is too many, but the number of unjustified, violent police killings of black Americans was insurmountable. People were fed up, deservedly so.
Police cars were set on fire, as were several businesses in the city’s financial district on the 17th block of Walnut. Significant destruction of businesses and public buildings occurred throughout the city in the following days. Besides Center City— Market East, North Philly, Northeast, and West Philly took on significant damage. There were about 50 incidents of ATM machines being blown up, consistently by way of dynamite, and one victim of an explosion that they may have detonated themselves.
It’s a good thing no one was going to work at the time anyway. Yes, parts of the city were shut off, but I was still able to ride my bike down the middle of Market St, past 30th St Station and into Center City without seeing more than a couple cars on a weekday in the midst of the pandemic.
This was not Philadelphia’s proudest moment by any stretch of the imagination.
On the first day, at least 13 officers were injured and approximately 200 people were arrested.
Mayor Kenney, a favorite of few, instituted an 8pm curfew that night. The following day, May 31st, it was tightened to 6pm with the help of the PA National Guard. In perhaps the most infamous scene from these Philly protests, a SWAT Team descended upon protesters blocking traffic on the I-676 Vine Expressway, firing rubber bullets and tear gas to remove them and get traffic moving again. Had these tactics drove the protesters off the highway and AWAY, this situation likely wouldn’t have become yet another image of police brutality in America. Instead, the protesters were stuck between a rock and a hard place, specifically, between the SWAT Team and a large hill with a 10-foot fence. SWAT continued to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at the defenseless, trapped, protesters, who, at this point, were just desperately trying to escape the onslaught.
It was a bad look across the board. Protesters interjecting themselves into highway traffic and heavily-armored police pummeling trapped, non-violent citizens with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Philadelphia, like many large U.S. cities, was on the brink for the first two weeks. The third brought forth a scuffle between protesters and counter-protesters in Marconi Plaza. A few minor injuries and two arrests resulted from the incident.
Many of the officers showed lawful restraint and arrested those breaking the law without inflicting unnecessary pain or injury. Some officers took it upon themselves to do as much damage to people protesting the unlawful killings of black people as possible.
For example, Officer Bologna who was looking for any excuse he could to crack some skulls. Guy’s name is bologna and he sure lived up to it.
The immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s death, and protests and riots in Philadelphia would last about three weeks. It was a long three weeks but today, almost feels like a blink in the grand scheme of things.
The President
Trump’s public statements (read: tweets) were consistently fired from the hip out of a machine gun. The abundance of them at times desensitized the small percentage of truly distasteful thoughts (that he admitted to regretting w/ Portnoy). So much so, that I missed the tweet he sent out on behalf of the Floyd family, even after going back and searching for it. It was buried behind transportation infrastructure funding updates (good!) and threats, accusations, and complaints about not getting enough credit (not good). But you can’t be upset with the fact that the President of the United States wasn’t thrilled with a bunch of American cities burning.
Let’s pray we never see a day where our President is truly happy to see American cities on fire.
That being said… it’s important to read the room.
If the goal was to help settle the rioting, his tweets didn’t help. From CBS:
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Trump said, "I feel very, very badly" about George Floyd's death while handcuffed and in the custody of Minneapolis police. "That's a very shocking sight."
The president's language got more aggressive as violence boiled over in Minneapolis Thursday night. "These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen," he tweeted. "Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"
In fact, I’d wager to say “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” probably lit a flame under the asses of hundreds of more protestors turned rioters, providing further incentive to move forward in what I’d consider a misguided mission for justice.
On June 1st, those protesting at the White House were forced out of the park so Trump could get a photo op in front of a church with a bible. The guy always liked a show. I think it’s safe to say that fire was lit for both those in support of BLM and those in heavy opposition, including ‘Umbrella Man,’ who, according to police, was a white supremacist attempting to incite riots in Minneapolis. Yes, it still would have been a shitshow without shady interferences, but that one slipped under the radar.
There were similar accusations on both sides of the ball against both Antifa and the Boogaloo Bois.
From Intercept:
The cache of law enforcement materials was recently hacked and posted online under the title “BlueLeaks,” providing an unprecedented look at the communications between state, local, and federal law enforcement in the face of the nationwide protests. In an analysis of nearly 300 documents that reference “antifa,” The Intercept found repeated instances of antifa and left-wing protesting activities cast in cartoonishly grim terms alongside more substantive reports of lethal right-wing violence and threats that have received scant mention from top Trump administration officials.
“Throughout the documents you see counterterrorism agencies using extremism so broadly as to mean virtually anything that encompasses dissent,” Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, told The Intercept. “There are instances in which people engaging in white supremacist violence get the benefit of the doubt as potential lone offenders, while people of color and those who dissent against government injustice are smeared as threats with guilt by association.”
Michael German, a former FBI agent specializing in domestic terrorism and current fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, said the materials were rife with examples of law enforcement intelligence being politicized in ways that endangered both protesters and police alike. “Terrorism is distinguished from other violence by its political nature and, as a result, counterterrorism is often highly politicized as well,” German told The Intercept. “Here we’re seeing where this politicization of counterterrorism is being reflected in intelligence documents that are going out and are intended to inform state and local law enforcement on the ground.” He added: “Overall, what you see is a strange sensationalization of the antifa threats — and that doesn’t exist when looking at the boogaloo documents.”
The Aftermath
Philadelphia and many other cities and towns across the U.S. finally began to make small changes to their police force operations, in the name of police reform.
Few police forces were actually defunded and none were abolished (That I know of…? Autonomous Zones don’t count). In PA, two bills were unanimously approved to ensure background checks on police officer applications (how was that not already a requirement?) and establish a database for officers that were removed from a previous department. In addition, mental health/PTSD evaluations were now also required. Most importantly, training on de-escalation tactics, use of force, and trauma-informed care, especially for children has been instituted as law for police officers in Pennsylvania.
Police funding went up this year and all of this appears to be a big reason why. While many were calling for defunding the police (myself for a period as well) It seemed that the better alternative would be to reallocate, retrain, and rebuild.
This is the Executive Summary of the ‘Pathways to Reform, Transformation, and Reconciliation’ 1-Year Progress Report on June 15, 2021
Philadelphia just released its 1-year progress report based on its Pathways to Reform, Transformation, and Reconciliation initiative. It’s an overall report on much more than police reform, but the goals to enhance policing in Philadelphia include the following:
• Update and review policies
• Strengthen oversight measures and increase transparency and equity
• Implement behavioral health and mental-health related operational reforms in policy and protocol
• Evaluate budgeting and collective bargaining process
• Support state-level police reforms
Pages 15-19 showcase what actions have been taken to make an impact. Some major notables include:
No-knock warrants are banned.
Strangleholds of any kind, including knees to the neck or head area are banned.
Tear gas has been banned in using against demonstrations. ( It’s easy to assume that this is lifted once demonstrations turn into riots )
Use-of-force interactions have to be reported over radio.
Low-level complaints are included in a mediation process to build trust within communities.
Civil rights attorneys and law institutions have reviewed the PPD’s technological advancements in policing, including facial recognition tech for unjustified action… ( pretty sure they’re straight here… don’t think they’re being creepy, but I’m also not up on the latest face tech so who knows what they can do these days)
A civilian Police Oversight Commission was created to review police misconduct.
Implicit bias training has been implemented for all sworn and non-sworn officers. By October 2021 all personnel should have received the half-day of training… (this sounds like a one-time and your golden type sitchachin’. Thinking every 2-3 years would be better)
A number of actions and processes have been implemented to increase diversity in the PPD.
A Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual DisAbility Services (DBHIDS) staff member has been relocated to study 9-1-1 calls and the script has been updated in correlation.
The 2021 budget was reduced by $33 million from 2020.
The 2022 budget has been increased — with a focus placed on violence prevention, although city council members say it’s still not enough.
A variety of actions to make police activity more transparent to the general public.
Now in 2022
Still way the hell up in the number of murderous shootings.
In relation to 2020 and 2021 things have been much more quiet on the police brutality front. It’s likely a combination of social media exhaustion and yes, actual improvement.
Social media exhaustion does not mean that people are letting awful happenings go without reckoning.
Shout out to the ER Nurses and Doctors, who are probably treating shooting victims at such an advanced rate. That’s got to be tough to deal with damn near every shift. Actual angels. Thank you
The Killing of Walter Wallace
Some of these actions and policy updates had already taken place before Walter Wallace was killed in late October 2020 by police. Five months after George Floyd’s killing. The shooting was captured on cell phone video and once again caused outrage across the states, not to the same level of George Floyd, but riots did take place in West Philly, in the area where Wallace was killed. Approximately 30 officers were injured during the riots, including one that was hit by a pickup truck, and several vehicles were set ablaze.
Watch 6 ABC’s Video Report from May 2021 —>
As for the incident itself, body cam footage from the officers and cell phone footage from witnesses clearly shows Wallace walking out of the house to confront officers with a large knife. As he walks out and approaches the officers, a woman clearly yells to inform the cops that “HE IS MENTAL” over and over again.
While in pursuit of the officers, two people try to subdue Wallace—a man and an older woman, both of whom he shrugs off to continue after the officers.
“DROP THE KNIFE” is echoed over and over by the cops. It’s loud and clear and basically the only communication that existed between Walter and the cops. At least during this final, fateful visit. This was the last of a handful of times cops were called to the house that day.
He moves forward calmly. Calm, relative to the fact that nothing about this situation is remotely calm. The mere presence of the officers escalates it immediately.
The officers keep their distance at first.
Walter separates himself from those trying to talk him down in the middle of the street. Eventually, it appears that he raises the knife at one of the officers, still from a distance, which prompts the officers to shoot him. Entirely too quickly as his pace had slowed in the few strips steps before the officers both fired. He would later die at the hospital.
Several 9-1-1 calls were placed by Wallace’s family for assaulting his own parents. This was the third time police showed up to the residence at 6100 Locust in the Cobbs Creek section of the city due to Wallace’s actions that day. The third call was on behalf of a woman screaming and an elderly woman being assaulted.
Clearly, Walter Wallace Jr. needed to be subdued that day and removed from the residence, but despite all the harm he was causing (and had previously caused both that day and others), he should not have had to leave in a body bag.
It’s easy to play armchair quarterback in such an incredibly intense situation, but one of the many questions has to be:
Why couldn’t it have been 1 shot to the leg, rather than 14 center mass?
Wallace was still at a distance from the officers and he never took off running at them. They need to retreat quickly, but they were able to keep their distance. Despite his wielding a knife and advancing towards officers, death, in this case should have been avoidable.
From The Philadelphia Tribune:
Police shoot until they've 'terminated a threat'
The "textbook answer" is that officers fire until they've terminated a threat, according to Seth Stoughton, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law who studies policing.
Officers use deadly force on a suspect they perceive to be an imminent threat of death or bodily harm to the officers or others. In training, police are told to use force until that person no longer presents a threat, Stoughton said.
The number of shots it takes to "terminate a threat" depends on the circumstances.
"Sometimes firing multiple shots makes complete sense," said Stoughton, a former officer. "Sometimes firing multiple shots or the sheer volume or shots than officers fire doesn't make sense."
If officers are using deadly force, they're usually trained to not pause their fire and to shoot in quick succession -- taking a break to assess the suspect they're shooting at could give that suspect time to harm them or others, he said.
Both officers were young, 25 and 26 years old. I’m sure that had to factor in. I hope that a veteran officer would have found a way to subdue Walter Wallace without emptying their clip. If center mass is the only training incorporated, it’s time to include leg shots for aggressors without firearms. That’s a brutal ‘upgrade,’ but it’s better than the almost guaranteed death of multiple trained police officers shooting for the heart of a man who had, quite literally, brought a knife to a gun fight.
The major issue with this suggestion is of course the aftermath for both parties involved: clipping an aggressive suspect’s leg will generate lawsuits 90% of the time, even if 90% of them were totally justified; and leg wounds can still have major life implications.
Would Tasers Have Deescalated The Situation?
Perhaps it’s most important to note that the Wallace family thinks it would have.
If the officers were actually equipped with them, we’d probably have an answer to that question. I was surprised to hear that they were not. Assumed every Philly officer had one. Turns out that would cost the PPD another $14 million to equip and train the full force.
FOR REFERENCE:
In the video of the infamous fence hopper, this real sharpshooter appears to connect at about 5 yards.
Associated Press video of the field dash taser
CNN clip, “How do stun guns work?”
Image courtesy PennLive
But regarding the situation itself, standard police-issued tasers shoot 35 feet, a foot shy of 12 yards. The accuracy and effectiveness starts to drop off at about 7 yards. Honestly, I’m impressed that it’s as consistent as it is at 5 yards. As expected when shooting a mini laser patch that’s attached to the gun by wires, accuracy and effectiveness drop off after 10 yards. From 5-7 it’s a pretty consistent mark, but asking an officer to get within 5-7 yards of someone wielding a big fucking knife is a life-risking request.
Let’s not forget that.
Not only is that knife an easy object to throw but 5 yards is a quickly closable distance.
A taser in this case still could have been useful, perhaps at one of the previous 5-6 visits. Patience surely would have been beneficial as well. Officers equipped with tasers showed up on the scene within minutes of Wallace being shot.
No one knows what was going through Walter Wallace Jr.’s mind that day, or in that moment. He suffered from mental illness, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He was prescribed lithium. Clearly, something was wrong and the result of the entire incident was horribly unfortunate.
Armchair Quarterback
Admittedly, this is
Monday Morning Armchair QB and pretend the leg shot situation plays out:
Officers shout drop the knife a thousand times. Walter continues walking steadily towards them with it handy.
They speed their retreat to create more distance between themselves and Walter, for everyone’s safety. Still, he refuses to drop the knife and advances on them, getting too close for comfort and the officers make the decision to shoot, as they do in the video.
One of them calls their shot, the way an outfielder calls for a fly ball (that’s cruel to compare the two but a good analogy nonetheless), the goal of the shot being to TERMINATE THE THREAT by clipping an ankle.
Considering they made the decision to shoot, the other officer preemptively calls for an ambulance.
Pow.
A single bullet is fired and down goes Walter.
In a HEAP because a bullet just went through his leg. He is no longer a
and in hitting the pavement in agony, Walter loses the knife and it goes flying to the curb. (Or he hangs onto it and the officers continue to keep their distance).
Immediately, the officers radio the situation and make it loud and clear to the family and neighbors outside that their collective goal is to now get Walter to the hospital. They ask neighbors to provide him some water and to please clear the street so the ambulance can get through. If someone has a clean towel or sheet they’re asked to bring it out and the police can use it as a makeshift tourniquet.
If the ambulance isn’t there in moments they’ll transport him right to the hospital theirselves.
I know this is semi-awful of me to lay out the
If only.
Philadelphia Police Officers train for 30 weeks (7.5 months) before being inserted in on the line of civic safety and service. Honestly, it’s more training than I expected, so I do hope that in those 30 weeks, cadets learn how to shoot in such a manner besides center mass. They’re provided situational tests/exams, the goal always being to deescalate and subdue with the least amount of force possible. For mental situations, the idea of sending a police officer AND a mental health expert would be preferable, but that’s a whole ‘nother subject for later.
Still, the facts remain: They were responding to a violent man, armed with a deadly weapon, who was assaulting his own family and did so further in front of the officers. If they retreated too far from Wallace and he stabbed someone, would the police be accosted for not acting soon enough?
There are simply too many “what-ifs,” but things need to change all over the place when you’re living in the most dangerous city in America.
Here’s a music video he put out in June 2020 that discusses the black lives matter movement, police brutality, and eerily ends with the statement: “Rest well to those who died due to the injustice of America.”
What could have deescalated the Arrest that Led to George Floyd’s Murder?
Not kneeling on a man’s neck for one.
The public reacted and rioted to a single video of George Floyd that started with Floyd being kneeled on and ended with his lifeless body being moved by officers. What wasn’t shown was the raw footage from the initial interaction that was released by Judge’s order in August 2020.
At 3min he is handcuffed. It appears he is first kneeled on at 11 minutes and 30 seconds. And then the officer kept it there for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd calls out for his mother as he is unjustly murdered.
In those 11 minutes and 30 seconds of struggle what else could have been instituted to bring this to a more safe conclusion?
Again, more patience and restraint shown by officers would have been ideal. Floyd never made any violent gestures towards them. It’s obvious that he would have lived and gone to jail unharmed had he obeyed the officers’ commands. With that in mind, more conversation and fewer demands could have been helpful. One of them appeared to try, offering to put the windows down and lay him comfortably in the backseat but that was about the extent of it.
Hindsight, hindsight, hindsight.
This is a crude thought, but we’re talking hypothetical solutions to save a life so here goes… a tranquilizer of some kind that would put an exceptionally unruly suspect to sleep. Similar to Etorphine.
The most common side effect associated with etorphine immobilization is pronounced respiratory depression, but common opioid effects (e.g., excitement, poor muscle relaxation, bradycardia or tachycardia, renarcotization) may be seen after administration of the opioid antagonist.
It eliminates the threat if properly injected, but also adds another element to a confrontation that could potentially get an inept officer stuck with the needle instead. Further, what kind of cost would this incur to equip every patrol car with the serum and needles to utilize in a dire situation?
It’s very clear that police reform needs to take place. But what specifically needs to be reformed?
Defunding the police means fewer uniforms on the street, fewer detectives to solve crimes, and fewer resources to safely serve and protect the community. Considering the state of Philadelphia as it is, that’s certainly an intimidating thought.
A Violent Year
Some would argue, but it’s not far-fetched to assume that the enacted police reform policies, a very lenient District Attorney, and a COVID-19 economic shutdown have contributed to Philadelphia having its most violent year in recent memory. Officially the deadliest in decades.
Yesterday (July 17th, 2021) Philadelphia surpassed 300 homicides in 2021 when a teenager was shot as part of a triple shooting that killed a 21-year-old. The teenager, a 14-year-old girl is believed to be an innocent bystander and was sitting on the porch of her home at the time of the shooting. She is in critical condition.
According to 6ABC, the gun violence epidemic in the city has affected children more than ever before:
In 2021, a total of 1,214 people had been shot in Philadelphia as of Thursday night, which is up about 24% from this time last year.
This number includes 259 people who were shot and killed, which is up about 42% from this time last year.
As of Thursday, 113 children (under the age of 18) had been shot in Philadelphia so far in 2021, which is up 49% from this time last year.
This number includes 21 children who were shot and killed, which is up 250% from this time last year.
More than three times as many children have been killed by gun violence in Philadelphia so far this year as had been killed by this time last year.
6abc's data team was also able to pinpoint the hardest-hit areas of the city: Ogontz, Logan, Strawberry Mansion and Fern Rock saw the most.
In response, the 2022 budget calls for a significant increase in violence prevention actions and community improvement efforts. In total, $155 million will be spent in this specific area.
Close to Home
In the Spring of 2021, a targeted attack was carried out against a teen was playing basketball at Hancock Playground in Northern Liberties. The park is known for the court’s excellent condition, the modern playground that’s consistently full with young families, the public swimming pool that just recently opened for the summer, and the baseball field that sits behind it all, and on a lower plain, that holds rec league games of all kinds—softball, soccer, kickball, you name it. I personally make consistent trips to the court, both on weeknights and weekend mornings.
During the attack, which occurred around 9pm on a weeknight, a stray bullet hit a girl playing kickball as part of the rec league. She was hospitalized in critical condition.
On the 41st block of Lancaster Ave in West Philadelphia, a community-organized rally against gun violence and open-air drugs was held in the spring of 2020. Community members came together over food and music as leaders spoke over a loudspeaker, condemning violence and begging those contributing to it to put both the guns and the drugs down, suggesting that the two were directly correlated. Flyers for the event were distributed and afterward signs were put up around the neighborhood—a political cartoon of sorts which I believe depicted a strapped, personified heart and a tagline of ‘Be Smart, Have Some Heart’ or something along those lines.
This all occurred months after a man was shot 13 times with a semi-automatic gun at the corner of 41st and Parrish at around 3am. A targeted shooting that somehow the man survived. He was visiting from out of town.
Both of these instances were very close to home for this particular writer. A classic case of caring just a little bit more the closer it gets to home.
I guess call me selfish.
We all do it.
An Honest Conversation
The amount of gun violence in Philadelphia amongst its citizens is a mountain compared to the molehill that is the number of incidents in which Philadelphia police officers use violent force on pedestrians.
Both situations need fixing, of course, and we can’t forget that a majority of civilian gun violence is caused either by the inadequacy of the police or that of the justice system. There are also the factors of poverty, systematic oppression, and generational trauma to take into consideration as we wonder why this kind of violence has grown so prevalent.
According to Mapping Police Violence, eight police killings took place in the Philadelphia area in 2020. This year to date (July 18, 2021), in the entire United States, 530 people have been shot and killed by police. How many of those are considered murders and how many of them are considered quality police work, I’m not sure, but it’s likely that in the vast majority of these incidents the police were not the instigators and responded to violence with violence.
Below are links to the seven other incidents in which police killed a civilian in Philadelphia. Walter Wallace being the eighth of course.
After street fight, man fires into crowd before police shoot him
After struggle, police kill man wanted in three states (Upper Darby)
Needless to say, there’s still police-wide and systematic changes that need to occur and considering the 1-year progress report referenced earlier, action is being taken. Sure, the $155 million being allocated towards violence prevention is a big step in the right direction but where are the protests and demonstrations against the gun violence epidemic that is costing black communities pain and suffering week after week.
The Mayor and the Police Commissioner love to tout the idea that they need help from the communities, but Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Helen Ubinas who covers gun violence in the area, suggests the communities ARE doing their jobs, and it’s time for legislation to take the next big step.
From her interview with Philadelphia Magazine, “I don’t know what neighborhoods (the mayor and the police commissioner) are hanging out in, but where I am hanging out, people are doing plenty. And officials love to talk about “no snitching.” That exists, but I’ve also been at meetings with police where moms try to give them information and are dismissed.”
As mentioned earlier, the City’s commitment comes in the form of $150 million. What I hear is a hell of a start, but I’m not a City Council member—the likes of which are responding vehemently that it is not enough. My pedestrian understanding is that the goal is to implement programs over a lifetime to steer children, teens, young adults, and grown adults away from a dangerous life in the gang-affiliated and drug-run areas, especially in North and West Philly.
The first $2 million has been distributed and some of the recipients are highlighted below, from an Inquirer article on the subject. Another $20 million is expected to be allocated by mid November.
Inquirer quotes in italics. Editorial in standard font.
New Options More Opportunities will get $1 million to lease a South Philadelphia apartment building and offer rental assistance and a case manager to combat youth homelessness.
Kids who need to earn money fast are easily intrigued by a life that at first could be prosperous but could lead to scary and precarious situations.
Every Murder Is Real will get $760,001 to hire more victim advocates and expand its family advocacy services and support groups. The group provides trauma-informed care and grief counseling to families hurt by gun violence.
How often is the question “Why’d you do it?” answered with “Because they shot my brother,” biological or not, these block vs. block beefs are as close to family vs. family as it gets. At some point the cycle needs to stop and this could potentially provide the conversation that helps end a violent retaliation cycle.
ManUpPHL will get $242,768 for its mentoring program that teaches young men about the causes and effects of gun violence. The grant will fund several groups of participants in the two-week program, with each receiving $240 and a job offer from a partner organization.
A very straightforward approach that would certainly benefit from some individual targeting of young, at-risk men connected to gun violence, especially if they’re at-risk of getting caught up in that life again.
Uplift Workforce Solutions will get $150,000 to help formerly incarcerated residents find jobs. The group aims to give job training and placement to 300 people by the end of 2022, and give them ongoing support for three years.
Beyond the Bars will get $117,150 to support its youth music programs. The organization will build eight recording studios as well as a mobile recording studio to work with students in neighborhoods most affected by gun violence, and will engage young people who have experienced or witnessed violence.
Music is incredibly popular and sometimes it’s just a matter of keeping the kids off the streets. Hopefully these programs can target at-risk students.
There’s $40 million being dispersed from the state level. In an article by The Philadelphia Citizen, it’s explained:
This is the third round of PCCD funding for gun violence prevention this year. In March, the commission distributed $7.5 million, including nearly $3 million in community-based violence intervention programs in Philly; most of that went to health systems and local universities. The commission is in the process of distributing another $10 million statewide to 53 projects (pending final approval), including almost $6 million to Philly groups.
Accountability
But how do we measure the success of these efforts and the massive, widely-dispersed funding besides gauging the homicide rate?
Many of the politicians and decision-makers involved in this effort tout immediate impact.
Again, from The Citizen article:
Through funding from the state legislature, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency is giving out about $23 million to gun violence prevention programs statewide, prioritizing those areas with the most need. “Philly is top of that list,” says Stephen St.Vincent, PCCD’s director of gun violence reduction initiatives (and a former Citizen staff member).
“The goal is for immediate impact,” St.Vincent says.
“And the main mission is preventing violence.”
From an outsider’s perspective, I imagine one of the tougher challenges in achieving an immediate impact is reaching those that need to be reached, and doing so before they escalate a dangerous situation. Not everybody living that kind of lifestyle is actively engaged in community programming…
Some of these programs will hopefully make an impact on generations to come and are naturally be more preventative than they are directly immersed in the hot streets of the city.
These Words
The goal of this article is simply to raise the question, while living in a city on track for 600 homicides and thousands of shootings, what needs to be done and are we having the right conversation to spur progress and decrease violence?
Does this course of action make the most sense? Is the far-reaching dispersion of funds really the best way to attack the problem or would consolidating the programs allow for a maximum impact, a more effectively run program.
At this point, it’s time to consider alternative options to these problems.
Is there any kind of a dialogue between those who committed those crimes and the organizations? With city council? At the end of the day we’re trying to prevent the actions that these exact men, and women took in their own hands… have we asked them what could have prevented the situation?
In such a strange time, and with looming, more large-scale dangers on the horizon, it’s about damn time we got our shit straightened out in our own backyard.
Wouldn’t you say so, Philly?
